what are recyclable nappies?

[ogri]

i read an article last night with little mo actress, and she says she uses recycable napppies for her daughter. i was wondering what they are and where to get them from and how much.
thanks very much

cloth ones maybe?

Recyclable nappies would only be any good if you had access to somewhere that would recycle them. E.g. if you live in the right part of Ireland the council take Moltex Oko disposable nappies and put them in a huge wormery to decompose them. But if you use Moltex Oko and put them in the rubbish bin they just sit in the landfill like any other nappy.

If there are disposable nappies that are easily recyclable I'd love to know about them!

Only cloth ones are recyclable, really, I think little mo was a bit confused...

Moltex Oko ones are compostable, not recyclable, but fruitful is right about the facilities to compost them being lacking - I've got a wormery in my garden, but I don't think I'd challenge it with nappies!

However Moltex are still a lot better environmentally than conventional nappies: they decompose a lot more quickly, saving room in landfill sites, and they are produced in much less toxic ways (they are partly made from recycled materials). They are very very effective as nappies too! More info on them here

AFAIK, Tushies are very similar to Moltex - but I don't use them, so didn't feel the same urge to go on about them! There is a newer sort called Bambo which look good too, and a bit cheaper.

The ones that are available in supermarkets are a bit less environmentally 'pure' - they are sort of half-way between the Moltex et al, and conventionals. But an improvement in many ways on Pampers etc, and about the same price - so no reason not to use them, really.

There is an interesting comparison of the eco-disposables here , though I think she's wrong to say that if you just have to put them in landfill, there's no benefit over ordinary disposables - there is a huge difference in terms of the environmental impact of producing them.

they may decompose quicker... but thinkj of this... you're still piling all your baby's poo in a landfill.

and when you consider that at times this poo contains live polio vaccines (amongst other things) then it's not that nice really whatever nappy you use!

Absolutely agree starlover, I'm a clothie really, but use ecodisposables occasionally (trips away etc).

I really really don't see why people make such a big deal out of using cloth nappies - for us, it maybe means a couple of extra laundry loads a week, and to me, given the gazillions of loads a household with 2 kids gets through anyway, that's not a problem.

But not everyone is going to be convinced to use cloth, and I do think that if they won't, then ecodisposables are preferable to the conventional brands.

agree hf... we had a lady from the council to our bumps and babes group (i am the only one there already using cloth!)... and all she got from everyone was

"oh but i don;t know how to use them"
"it's too much hassle"
"i have enough washing already"

and so on... bear in mind that this very lady was offering to GIVE THEM £100 worth of nappies free! and they turned it down!

crazy!

How come Im never around when these offers are going. I obviously live in the wrong place . Typical

Whadda reckon are the chances of me persuading our council to give £100 towards the cost of our nappies???

I reckon about 0

this is in west sussex tarantula!

we only have about 5 yrs worth of landfill left here so they're really working hard on the cloth nappy initiatives! it's fab!

How are cloth nappies different from disposables with regard to poo? You've still got to empty it down the loo haven't you, because its illegal to put human excrement in the rubbish.

Not sure I understand what your poo problem is Dinosaur? If anything, it's less gross than for a disposable, IME.

We use disposable paper liners. Hold cloth nappy over loo, liner and poo fall in, flush. Then put it in a bucket lined with a mesh bag, drop on some tea tree oil. When the bucket's full, lift out the bag and sling it in the machine. Easy

Whereas I find the way you have to sort of waggle a disposable over the loo to get the poo off a bit yucky, frankly!

Sorry - not clear - 'put it in a bucket' - 'it' is the cloth nappy

Regarding putting poo in landfills - where do you think the sludge from the sewage treatment works goes?

Why didn't they take the nappies - I mean it's not like the lady from the council is going to come around to your house at night and check whether you have sneaked in a disposable.

Personally I find the biggest savings are from not using baby wipes. I spent about 3 quid on some face cloths and they have wipes hundreds of bottoms now.

Some people mix feed - I mix nappy.

I just dry-pail the nappies, complete with residual stains. If it's really bad, I dangle it in the loo and flush. Maybe that makes me a disgusting slattern, but the buckets don't stink up the bathroom and the nappies come out of the washing machine clean, so I think it's OK.

I can see handwashing would be the counsel of perfection - but hey, nobody's perfect .

And it had never entered my pretty little head to wonder where the sewage sludge goes, I confess...

The sludge goes to landfill, HF.

My main motivation was that they are cheaper. I paid around NZ$150 for everything I have used so far by not using the fancy things. i have sold too small stuff on Ebay and sometime got back what I paid. $150 would only have bought me 15 packets of disposables max, so my washing machine would have to be gold plated for there not to be a cost saving.

Very often money calculations only take into account using for 1 or possibly 2 children - not selling on Ebay.

They might be green, they might not be. But I'm going on holiday with the savings so who cares!